Travel

I’m going to be there ;-) I’ll be arriving in Melbourne on Tuesday 20th December. I have a Visa interview on the 22nd and then I’ll be heading off to Adelaide on the 23rd, arriving some time around lunch. At some point along the way I’ll be in Loxton, probably for Christmas but otherwise I’ll be in Adelaide catching up with all you fine people back there. I’m going to try scheduling some golf, tennis, bowling and some other stuff with some of you guys back there I think. Also, Savvy is crying out for some attention, as is the Botanic and even Worldsend. Awesome. I can’t wait to get back there!

Some of you may know that I’m trying to get back to Australia for Christmas. To those of you who didn’t know, now you do. There are some major complications that have arisen which may prevent me from doing so, but just to let you know I’m trying to work through those and I’m also trying to figure out a stack of alternative plans. I really, really want to catch up with y’all there. ...

I’ve just arrived in Orlando for a halloween festival and I must mention just how glad I am to be out of South Florida. Hurricane Wilma was the first real hurricane I’ve experienced. From watching amazingly stong winds blow down trees early Monday morning to living without electricity, phone or drinkable water until I left this afternoon, it is something I don’t really want to experience again. The experience was worthwhile, yes, but that’s enough thanks. One of the most dangerous things I’ve had to do is drive around without working traffic lights. The traffic lights weren’t working not only because there was no electricity, but because in a lot of cases they just weren’t there anymore. Trees everywhere were down. Powerlines were strewn across roads. The scenery changed so much that I drove past an entrance to a street because I didn’t recognise it anymore - and of course a lot of the street signs had been blown down. There were massive lines for car fuel at the few pumping stations that were working (there was no power to pump the fuel so some stations had to get backup generators in). The only time I really bothered with a car was to visit friends and to find reception for and to charge my cell phone. All the other times I travelled about was on a mountain bike to pick up water or get cell phone service. ...

All I can say about New York City is “wow”. What a city. I found myself not wanting to return back to Florida after spending time in NYC. Here is a quick summary of what was accomplished: Helicopter flight around Manhattan Boat cruise around statue of Liberty Saw an off-broadway production “Slava’s snowshow” Saw a lot of of the districts in Manhattan - Soho, Meatpacking district (nightclubs are big there), Harlem, Times Square, Chinatown, Financial district… the list goes on and on Walked across Brooklyn bridge Saw comedy acts at Dangerfield’s club Jazz at a place called “Smalls” A funky salsa-like band at a place called “Cafe Wha” Museums including the Intrepid, Guggenheim and museum of modern design. Walked though Central Park Went up the Empire state building Tour through NBC studios Whilst travelling on the subway, saw the following: some guys doing flips in the middle of the car; some mexicans playing some mariachi-like music; a guy with a bass guitar playing “my girl”; a preacher woman telling us all to repent. I did not in fact get to see any of the shows like Dave Letterman, the Daily Show nor in fact did we get our mugs on the Today show (that turned out to be way too early in the morning). The shows actually required a little more planning to see. There is always next time I guess, and there definitely will be a next time. Hopefully for an even longer time :-) ...

Blues Bar The Bean Reflection View from Sears tower ...

First off, I’d like to thank Su-Yin and Chi-Hoong for being fantastic hosts and laying the groundwork for an absolutely bloody awesome weekend in Chicago. I had a blast. I can’t write about everything that happened because that would constitute a best-selling book, and this is but a blog. I’ll post updates when I haven’t got writer’s block. UPDATE: Before I hit the sack tonight, I must share the lack of luck I had when journeying back from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale. I was feeling pretty damn sleepy when I arrived at the airport and thought I could use the extra space afforded in Economy Plus class - a whole 5 inches of extra leg space! - to help me get to sleep. For the privilege I had to pay an extra $30. ...

I’ve been looking forward to this afternoon for a while now, for it is this afternoon that I fly off to Chicago to visit “Choza” and “da Boss”. I’ve got a list of places I want to see and a lot of things I want to do. Hopefully I can forget about the backlog of work I have to do at the moment. There is so much stuff I have to get done it’s incredible. Ahh well, such is life.

I’ve posted some of the pics from New Orleans up on flickr. You can check them out here. At some point I’ll post up what I got up to. Perhaps tonight.

Ok. My heart rate has hit rock-bottom now. I’m now in the town where I grew up: Loxton, South Australia. It’s a country town about 250 km out of Adelaide with a population of around 7000. It’s a nice and tidy place to be - and I had my first schnitzel in over 8 months last night at the Loxton pub! I’m not feeling weirded out today like I was for the past few days. I’d say that I got over my jetlag but I never had any to begin with. Now I’m just wondering how the hell I’m going to be able to visit all the people I want to see while I am back here down under. ...

Are here. I’ve got pics of signs advertising a brothel called the “Shady Lady Ranch”, a nice pic of a Joshua tree, pictures showing my affection with roads going off into the distance, having fun riding bombs, and pictures of highly sophisticated and blossoming towns. UPDATE: When browsing Flickr photos, you may notice that you can’t view higher resolution versions of the photos. They’re making a stack of changes at Flickr, so this should be fixed in the near future. It doesn’t really worry me at this stage because god damn at least they’re actually making changes! ...